The crisis

Recently, there has been news about there being a single examination for all the engineering colleges. That is, IIT-JEE and AIEEE are to be combined into a single exam .And not only this, there will be considerable weightage of board marks and the ranks would be given out accordingly.

The JEE pattern was last modified in 2006. Then, the pattern was changed from Prelims(Objective) + Mains(Subjective) to just a single Objective style paper. The reason given behind this was given to be the emergence of coaching industry and students neglecting schools to go to coaching classes and rot-learning the concepts and cracking JEE. Also, the number of attempts was reduced to let more students just passing the school to enter IIT and ease the competition for them.

In the 'new' pattern, which was supposed to encourage understanding rather than rote-learning and let brighter students into the IITs, hasn't proved very effective. According to Mr. Narayan Murthy and Profs at IIT, the level of students have gone down significantly due to an even more thriving coaching industry. 

I can't argue with that, they know it better!!

Now, to curb that, the HRD/Kapil Sibal/IITs are deciding to introduce this new pattern. I am trying to figure out, how would this new scheme going to help the issue. Having cleared the JEE (not from Kota), and being here for past 4 years, I can say that I have some understanding of the above issues. Personally, I did not like the change and I developed this rationalization. Let's see if it makes any sense and if I am able to give any constructive opinions.

Firstly, I think that there are so many things which are going bad with the IITs (apparently) that it's surprising how can so much go bad in just two decades (As Narayan Murthy says, IITs were fine before 1990s). It would be tempting to make correlations between some numbers and pass them as causation (like, growth of coaching institutes and increasing craze for IITs); but let's not make such associations. We have a beautiful cortex in contrast to other mammals which can look beyond correlations and into rational explanations (Don't know about Kapil Sibal though).

So, IITs were started in the second five year plan to help the country in technology to prepare the country for it's bright future. They wanted to attract people with the best analytical capabilities of their generation. For this, an examination was conducted by the IITs and it's level was set far above the easily crackable board exams. They produced good engineers who went on to do engineering jobs at good companies or study abroad during the socialist period of the country.

Apparently, the IITs did well till 1990s. Coincidentally, there was a shift in country's economic policy in the 1990s.The newly entered multinational companies wanted people with good analytical skills. And where to find them? Of course at IITs. And the people graduating from IITs were highly demanded by these companies. The students at IITs have traditionally come from the huge middle class. The middle class in India have always shared a common mentality. Historically, engineers and doctors have been the respected breed by the middle class. Also, the middle class always wanted their children to have the best job (government job in the socialist era and multinational company job nowadays). So, the love of middle class for these new high paying jobs and IITs proving as the best place to get them, IITs became the most popular destination. The news spread fast through the huge and homogeneous middle class.

On the other hand, the news spread in the world of people eager to get jobs multinational companies. This started the shifting of the jobs to India.

And so, we enter to the 2000s. Increasing number of students began preparing for the JEE. The curriculum in high schools was not enough to meet their preparation needs. When there is so much demand for something and the traditional system is just not giving that, new unconventional traders emerge. Enter the coaching classes.

Kota became a center for 'true' education. In this later half of the decade, this began spreading to middle sized towns as well. To this, I am reminded of method of teaching at these coaching institutes. I felt that in school, I had to learn what was given in the textbook. The teacher was unwilling (and more so, incapable) to respond to my queries. When I joined the coaching classes, it was so enthralling that, school was pointless. I need not have the best handwriting in the class to succeed in Physics exam at the coaching center. I felt that JEE valued me for what I knew rather than superficial things like my handwriting as in the CBSE board exams. And I myself never go to Kota, just a new coaching class in a small town in mid 2000s.

So, the new dream of the middle class for getting into IITs led to excessive pressure on the students and the rise of coaching classes. This correlation was mistaken as causation.

To reduce the pressure on students, a new pattern was introduced and new rules were made on the number of attempts. But as can be clearly seen, it did nothing to attack the cause -- incapability of the school to provide the students what they wanted to study. And the new pattern did more harm than benefits. The elimination of subjective pattern made students to excel JEE without having mathematical rigour as some profs feel (***).  This is again blamed on coaching classes.

School curriculum was made easier in so many states, including CBSE -- which only exaggerated the situation.

What I can understand of the situation is that -- The IITs, students and coaching classes are on one side and the stupid school system is on the other side. The students want to learn more, IITs want to students to learn more, the schools give no means for students to learn more and coaching classes help the students to learn more. Coaching classes are not EVIL!!

As for the quality of the students at IIT, Profs feel that students are not interested in engineering. But they were never interested in engineering for that matter. Before 1990s, studying engineering at IIT was the only way to get a good job. And now, they are interested in many things other than engineering also. I have never seen anyone (not even a guy from Kota) waste his time at IIT. They all want good jobs (as pointed out earlier). It's just they take different routes now. Students not engaging in hard-core engineering engage in entrepreneurship, finance or other interesting fields. The students are still good, but there are so many different dimensions that it's hard to measure all students on a single scale. And Profs just know a part of the story. Again, this must not be put on to coaching classes.

Now, the JEE is further simplified. And the students who just memorize the guides for board exams or have beautiful handwriting will enter the IITs. This would be the ultimate down gradation of the IITs. 2013 would indeed prove to be unlucky for IITs. The western countries fear Indian math and science education. The reason for this fear is the JEE driving youth to study. Now, JEE itself tied down by the school system, it's going to be hard for the elephant to move. Let's wait for the country to be developed before crushing the quality of high school students.

They say that the new pattern will be more like SAT in the US. But in the US, SAT is not the only criterion for admissions. Each and every student is individually looked at before giving admissions. This is clearly not possible for 5 lakh students.

I hope the above rationalization makes sense. And it would be rude not to suggest constructive opinion.

It's clear from above that the school system is not providing what is needed and somehow, it's still central in education system. I feel that the best solution would be to introduce alternate advanced level Math, Physics and Chemistry courses. This would give the aspirants of the JEE what they want.

The current easy level courses could cater to the students who want to keep it light. And if the school curriculum acknowledges and adapts to the needs of the competitive age, then only the coaching centers would shut down. Schools could provide the students with advanced level education for the entrance exams. And maybe, the coaching classes can consult schools and boards with delivering dynamic science education in the schools.

I hope things change, but the change must deal with the cause.